ESPN Int'l has acquired exclusive distribution rights to a
supplemental package of MLB games for the remainder of '96 and
'97. In addition to rights to all ESPN domestic regular season
games, ESPN Int'l has also acquired rights to divisional playoff
games, the All-Star Game, All-Star Work Out Day, both LCS's and
the World Series. ESPN Int'l Senior VP & Managing Dir David
Zucker: "Our networks in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East
will receive a full compliment of great games from a sport which
is rapidly becoming one of the world's most popular" (ESPN
Int'l).

Randall Cunningham is a "top candidate" to be a studio
analyst on TNT's football broadcasts this year, according to TNT
spokesperson Greg Hughes (PHILA. DAILY NEWS, 8/7)....AOL has
acquired multiplayer on-line game service, InagiNation Network,
from AT&T (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/7)....Lee Winfrey of the
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER reviews the new HBO comedy series,
"Arli$$": "If sitcoms were judged like gymnastics, ["Larry
Sanders"] star Gary Shandling would grab the gold medal with a
perfect score of 10 and ["Arli$$" star Robert] Wuhl would be a
cinch for the silver at 9.9" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 8/7).
Michael Hiestand notes the characters may "seem creative to the
casual viewers, but stereotypical to sports devotees" (USA TODAY,
8/7)....According to people close to the talks, Time Warner and
Seagram's are "exploring ways" for Seagram to shed its 14.9%
stake in Time Warner (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/7)....Sports
Illustrated Presents' "College Football '96" hit newsstands
Monday. The magazine will only be sold at retail outlets and has
15 regional covers (SI)....With two months to go before the debut
of WBIS+ in New York, joint owners Dow Jones and ITT appear "at
odds" over the channel's make-up. According to one exec, "The
basic problem there is that I don't believe there is a clear
picture of what they are talking about except this extremely
vague idea that they are going to be a news and sports channel"
(BROADCASTING & CABLE, 8/5 issue).

The Red Sox have agreed to terms on a two-year renewal deal
with the BUCI Television Group and flagship station WABU-TV for
broadcast rights to games during the '97 and '98 seasons. WABU
holds an option for '99. Terms of the agreement were not
disclosed. This coming year, WABU-TV 68 Boston, Concord, NH's
WNBU-TV and Cape Cod's WZBU-TV will join the Boston Red Sox
Baseball Network to broadcast 75 regular-season and five spring
training games (Red Sox). This morning, the BOSTON GLOBE's Jim
Greenidge reports WABU "put cash on the table" to secure the
renewal. Last year WABU supposedly guaranteed the Red Sox almost
$9M. But some have said WABU will lose $6-8M this season on its
baseball telecasts and that the station is for sale. WABU denies
both. WSBK-TV, which held or shared the Red Sox contract for 21
seasons before this year, attempted to sign the Red Sox for three
years minimum. WLVI-TV was also "involved in the latest
negotiations" (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/7).

The Sunshine Network, the Lightning's broadcast-rights
holder, has named WTTA-TV to replace WTOG-TV as the team's
flagship station this season, according to the TAMPA TRIBUNE.
WTTA-TV will carry 15-20 of the minimum 50 games Sunshine agreed
to broadcast when it signed with Lightning in June through the
2001 season. Carter Gaddis notes Sunshine GM Jim Liberatore said
the games to be shown on WTTA-TV will be "determined in about a
week." Liberatore: "With the increasing interest in the
Lightning, we needed to find a station that allowed us to put a
lot of games on." He added that other stations, affiliates of
UPN and WB, could not guarantee air time for all games due to
network commitments (TAMPA TRIBUNE, 8/7).

The latest in this summer's string of sports-related movies
is MGM's "Kingpin," which aspires to do for bowling what
"Caddyshack" did for golf. The "Kingpin" Web site at
http://www.mgmua.com/kingpin/main.html offers some background on
the plot (you know the story -- Amish boy taken under wing by
one-handed former phenom with revenge against evil rival as the
ultimate goal), as well as the vision of the filmmakers. Co-
Director Peter Farrelly: "After this movie, bowling will either
be brought back or it will be banned entirely." The site also
has the schedule for the now-completed "Kingpin Across America"
tour, which starred Calvert DeForest (a.k.a. Larry "Bud" Mellman)
and sought to establish bowling as an Olympic sport. The
"Kingpin" site also features links to other bowling areas,
including the PBA's official site at http://www.pba.org.
Sponsored by Brunswick, with promises of a heightened role from
the company, the site offers the latest info on the tour, chats
with other bowlers, and a merchandise site offering a poster of
the "Million Dollar Club" (THE DAILY).

ESPN has announced it has sold out its gold sponsorship
category for the inaugural Winter X Games slated to take place
January 30 to February 2, 1997 at Snow Summit Mountain Resort in
Big Bear Lake, CA. Four of the summer gold sponsors have signed
on the for the winter: AT&T, Nike Mountain Dew and Taco Bell.
They will be joined in the gold sponsor category by Volkswagen
and Pringles (ESPN). INSIDE MEDIA notes the sponsors will
benefit from their sponsorship with "various on-site amenities
and commercial elements across multiple ESPN properties,
including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Radio and ESPNET SportsZone" (INSIDE
MEDIA, 8/6 issue).